


Struck

by missmichellebelle



Category: Glee, Glee RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Twins, Cupid - Freeform, Humor, M/M, POV Outsider, Romance, blarren humfer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 07:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmichellebelle/pseuds/missmichellebelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Love works in mysterious ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Struck

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been prompted many times to write a fic where there's a twin-mix-up with Blarren Humfer, and I've always wanted to write a Cupid fic so... This is what came out of that. It's told from a third party's POV _kind of_? Idk, it's a little weird. It was a very self-indulgent thing for me to write.
> 
>  **WARNINGS:** If you like the ship Kurt/Darren, I don't recommend reading this, because it's basically about how they are shit for each other so like. Yeah. Also, there's like a small whee bit of infidelity.
> 
> This idea really deserved like a 15k fic to tell the story I wanted to tell, but it got 5k, so... Sorry. XD

Love works in mysterious ways. At least, it does for humans. They don't understand love or all of the details that go into creating it, but, then again, they aren't supposed to. That's the job for the disciples—of Cupid, of Aphrodite, of whichever other name the god of love tends to go by. To keep things simple, they refer to themselves as love disciples, and their job is to pay attention to all of the things that humans never even have to worry about.

While the disciples don't _exactly_ plan out the who, the where, the how, and the when (that's the job of the gods, after all), they're the ones responsible for carrying out the plans that are made. Right down to the footstep, the very inhale, the precise blink, they make people fall in love. It's just what they do.

At least, that's what they're _supposed_ to do. Every system has flaws, has kinks in the system, has those few cogs that don't turn quite as quickly as the others. Every once in awhile, something goes wrong.

This is the story of how things go wrong. About how one disciple makes such a bad mistake that it messes up not just two people's lives, but four.

*

She goes by J, and she's usually very good at her job. They only have a handful of jobs at a time, ones that span months and that are checked in on until they're considered complete—after all, love doesn't happen in a second, and takes the proper care and nurture and meddling from a disciple to happen just right.

It all starts with a touch, which is easy to give when you're invisible and humans are completely unaware of your presence. So all J has to do is press her fingertips to the skin of her targets, and the magic does most of the work for her after that. All she really has to do is make sure everything stays on course.

There are a million little things that could have led to her mistake. Some other disciples accused her of being too cocky, of not reading the signatures correctly, of not following the plan closely enough. Others sympathize, say that anyone could have made the mistake, that it was just dumb luck and that she shouldn't blame herself.

What it comes down to is that that day, J was supposed to start the love story of Kurt and Blaine. What no one thought to tell her was that Blaine had a twin.

*

There is not supposed to be a Darren-and-Kurt. There is no story for them, no plan. But J messed up, and now their story is starting despite the different destinies that are planned for them both. J doesn't know Darren's, isn't responsible for it, but she knows Kurt's—she knows _Blaine's_ —and it's her job to put it right.

Which is what she tries to do. Immediately. And maybe, if she'd thought on it a little harder, she wouldn't end up making more of a mess of the whole situation. J attempts to make everything right—she touches Kurt again, and touches Blaine, but it's too late and the damage is done.

The story starts to play out the way it's supposed to. It's a coffee shop, Blaine has a drink in his hand, and when he turns around, he bumps into Kurt and spills most of the liquid on the floor. This is the part where Kurt and Blaine are supposed to look at one another and start their forever, this is supposed to be when they both have a startling realization.

J sees it happen in Blaine, see's his eyes go round and his mouth start to form around an apology before the words leave him completely. The same thing should be happening to Kurt, only it's _not_. No, Kurt is scowling as he looks over his clothing, searching for signs of spilt coffee, and has no idea that someone has just fallen in love with him.

Then the _other one_ shows up, the _wrong_ one, a constant reminder of J's failure.

"Did you just spill your drink on a stranger?" Darren asks, voice full of amusement. His voice seems to pull Blaine from his moment, and he looks toward his brother. They're identical in their stature and face shapes, but aside from that, J can see the difference. Seeing it now just makes her mistake so much _worse_ , though.

"I—" Blaine stutters, and his moment might be broken, but he's still staring at Kurt. It hurts J, to see half of the perfect story and know that she messed it up. Because Kurt finally looks up, contempt curling his lips, and that is not how someone should look at the love of their life. How could she have messed up so badly?

Watching as Kurt's eyes gloss over Blaine and go straight to Darren is the worst part. It's the mistaken moment, the sudden _interest_ in Kurt's eyes and Darren noticing that interest, and J can feel the heartbreak the moment she knows Blaine feels it. The moment that Blaine sees the flirty way Kurt is looking at Darren, and the charming smile he reflects back.

It's so wrong, so very, _very_ wrong, and don't they realize that? J wants to give them all a stern talking to, but she knows it's hopeless. They're human, and they are easily led by the whims of magic—the ones she understands and manipulates. As much as she wants to push Blaine into Kurt's path, it doesn't work that way.

There's only one way to fix what she's done, and it involves breaking and mending a lot of hearts. It also involves learning Darren's story, and making it happen sooner rather than later.

*

The easiest way to break the bond she accidentally formed between Kurt and Darren is to form Darren's true bond. It's messy—first she'll have to break his heart, and in turn will break Kurt's, but they'll both be happier in the long run, she knows. Besides, actual love takes _months_ of attention to cement. The faster she acts, the less damage she'll cause.

The guys upstairs aren't happy with her mistake. Darren isn't supposed to find his True Love for another three years, and is an important pawn in many other love stories along the way.

But the damage is done, and they can't wait three years to fix the mistake J has made. Still, time is needed to write a new story. She just has to make due until then.

*

Her heart goes out to Blaine the most. As a disciple, J believes in love and all the marvelous things about it. On top of that, the reason she _exists_ is to help people find their love stories, to make sure they happen, to see them find that happiness. To see Blaine without it, to know that it's _her_ doing, is more punishment than the gods could ever bestow upon her.

She wishes it hadn't been Blaine's brother. She wishes that she had somehow made the mistake with someone else, even though them being twins had been the root of it all. Even if she would have taken more blame, at least it would mean that Blaine wouldn't have to be witness to the love of his life falling in love with his _brother_.

"So where are you guys going?" Blaine asks, as he leans in Darren's bedroom doorway. He's smiling, but it's feigned just as much as his interest. Still, he's a good brother, so he asks.

"Just that same little coffee shop," Darren answers as he shrugs on a cardigan.

 _Wrong_ , J thinks. Kurt is supposed to invite Blaine to dinner. There is no pretense of casualness from the get-go, but there isn't supposed to be. When it's the love of your life, there's no testing the waters.

"Really?" Blaine asks, the judgement obvious in his voice, and Darren frowns at him.

"What?"

"I just… That shirt with that cardigan?" Blaine lies smoothly, and Darren just rolls his eyes.

"It's fine." Darren pockets his wallet and walks past Blaine, patting him on the arm. "Don't wait up."

"…it's two in the afternoon," Blaine points out, but Darren just winks at him and continues on his way out. Blaine probably doesn't understand the anger he feels as he grips the door, doesn't understand the way he suddenly wants to put whatever he can between his brother and this date… But J does. She doesn't touch Blaine, doesn't dare doing anymore damage, but stands with him and empathizes.

 _I'll fix this_ , she promises, as Blaine morosely heads into his room. _Soon_.

*

Blaine is right about the cardigan. J sees it in Kurt's eyes the moment he sees Darren, but Darren doesn't notice. It makes her so frustrated that they can't _see_ how wrong they are for each other, but she's been doing this job for centuries. Humans are so young always that they never learn the things she has.

They get in line, and J shadows them, a non-imposing and invisible presence at their elbows.

Darren gets tea and a muffin, Kurt gets coffee, and Darren offers to pay.

"I'm not a big coffee person," Darren admits as they sit down, and Kurt looks a little surprised.

"Really? I don't know how I'd survive without it."

J looks between them, wants to yell, _See?!_

Humans are so frustrating.

"My brother's the same way, though. He doesn't _hate_ coffee, but he never drinks it by choice," Kurt says. "Strange that you would choose a coffee shop to meet if you don't even _like_ coffee," Kurt teases.

"Well, I guess I'm like your brother in that respect—I don't hate coffee, I just don't go out of my way to drink it. But, I don't know, this is where we met—it seemed like a good spot to meet again."

 _Damn_. J glares at Darren. He's unfailingly charming, and that is not going to help her.

Kurt seems pleased and also flustered by this answer, looking like a schoolboy with the blush on his cheeks and the way he presses a smile into his hand.

"So, um," Kurt continues, leaning his elbow on the table. "I have to ask. If you don't like coffee, why were you in a coffee shop to begin with?"

Darren laughs a little bit and shakes his head.

"My brother—remember, the guy that nearly spilt his coffee all over you?—he has the same reverence for coffee you do."

It looks like Kurt digs deep back in his memory, even though it was just the other day, and J is surprised when there is something other than just recognition in Kurt's eyes.

"Oh, yeah… Blaine, right?"

 _There it is_. It's a spark of hope and J is going to run with it. Maybe she can fix this faster than she thought.

*

It's astonishing what she sees and what humans don't.

It's not like Kurt and Darren's date is _bad_ , but J has seen how dates between True Loves go, and that date certainly fell short. Their conversations never dipped below the surface, never dug at anything real, and they spent a stupid amount of time smiling at one another.

At the end of the date, Darren had kissed him, and when they'd both pulled away, they'd looked unsure. But the magic is powerful—even though their bodies are basically rejecting the match, the magic is convincing them it's still right. _Stupid magic_.

"How'd it go?" Blaine asks, his fake enthusiasm gone. He asks out of politeness, and seems incredibly reluctant to know the answer.

It takes a long time for Darren to come up with one, longer than would ever be considered normal.

"Good," he says, but he doesn't sound so sure about it. And yet. "We're going to go and see a movie together this weekend."

Seriously, it is _so frustrating_.

*

Thankfully, the gods (at least the ones in charge of love) take mistakes rather seriously, and work rather quickly. Then again, being a god, time always seem to work to their advantage.

J will never know what Darren's original plan looked like, or what his story was supposed to be. She doesn't even know how the plans are made, if the gods can just change who is supposed to love who. She imagines not, because it would be a lot easier to just make Kurt and Darren work rather than put the stories in their proper places.

However, when Darren's true match turns out to be Kurt's twin brother, she really does wonder if the gods do more than read the strings of fate. Some coincidences are just too good to be true.

*

Normally, a disciple's magic is used for the initial connection and then for gentle nudges toward a fully bloomed _I love you_. This time, J needs to use her magic to reverse the connection, and to put people in each other's paths.

It's easier than a human would think to manipulate their lives, to make them go places they wouldn't have gone otherwise, to place them in front of someone they never would have been near otherwise, to have their opinions towards certain habits or ideas suddenly flipped. It's a little funny to J now, that she can manipulate almost every emotion except an already formed bond. Of course _that_ has to be the difficult one.

First, she has to weaken it. She knows very well that she could throw Darren's match into the mix immediately, but even knowing about Blaine puts her through an almost unbearable pain—she won't put another person, and herself, through that. As long as she has a say in it, he will be her final strike against Darren and Kurt's match, damage that lays the foundation for beautiful beginnings.

*

Kurt and Darren go to their movie, and J tags along as a third wheel they don't know they have. It's strange for J to know she'll be using her magic to make two people _dislike_ one another—it's really not made for that, although that doesn't mean it's impossible. But it feels wrong, as she starts her work. It's a delicate process, especially given that Darren's future match is _Kurt's brother_.

_Why her?_

Darren is early, and although he had originally planned to wait for Kurt to buy the tickets, he has the sudden compulsion to buy them ahead of time. He picks the newest action-thriller, and pays for both tickets, of course. When Kurt shows up and starts talking about the new romance movie that has just come up, Darren only seems a little sheepish as he brandishes the already purchased tickets, and maybe he can't see the way Kurt restrains himself from complaining, but J can.

It only goes worse from there. They can't agree on a candy to share, so they buy two. Darren covers their tub of popcorn in butter, and then Kurt is annoyed because it's _too much_. They fight over the armrest in the theater, and Kurt shushes Darren every time he tries to talk during the previews. When Kurt gets scared during the movie, Darren doesn't notice, and Kurt crosses his arms and sulks as they leave the movie.

J doesn't really _like_ being mean and mischievous, but she can't deny that it's a little fun to do something so drastically different.

Their goodbyes are polite, and Kurt still kisses Darren on the cheek, but J is just getting started.

*

"How'd it go?" Blaine asks again, and Darren frowns and shrugs.

"Okay?" He furrows his eyebrows, shakes his head, and heads into his bedroom. Blaine stares after him in question.

*

Since Blaine is already a game piece in play, J decides to use him. Not in a _bad_ way, just to speed things up and to make sure that when Kurt and Darren are pushed apart, Blaine is the one that Kurt runs to.

Kurt gets it in his head that he'll go to Darren's house and surprise him with a homemade meal, but when he gets there, Blaine is the only one home.

"H-hi. Kurt, right?" Blaine stammers, tugging at the bow tie looped through his collar and subconsciously touching his hair. Kurt's eyebrows raise in surprise, and he tilts his head to the side and smiles.

"Yeah. And you're Blaine." Kurt doesn't even question it, but Darren just happens to talk about his brother _a lot_.

"Yeah, um, hi." Blaine blushes and then laughs a little bit, ducking his head.

"Hi." Kurt's smile grows a little bigger, and then he holds up the brown paper bag in his hand. "Is Darren here?"

The reality of the situation seems to hit Blaine like a bucket of cold water, washing the look of pleasure from his face ( _Soon_ , J quietly promises him).

"No, actually." Blaine frowns. "He's working tonight. He didn't tell you?" The pinch between Blaine's eyebrows turns a little angry.

"Oh, no! I actually didn't ask. I was going to surprise him, but… I guess that's what I get." Kurt laughs, self-deprecating, and shakes his head. "Sorry to bother you."

And then Blaine just has this _idea_ , although the urge to keep Kurt there feels like a deep burning in his bones.

"No, wait!" Blaine reaches out and grabs Kurt's arm before he can turn away, and J can practically feel what must surge between them. Because their bodies know and recognize each other, and it makes J smile ecstatically. "You bought all of that food, why… Why don't you stay? I'm not _great_ in the kitchen, but I could help?" Blaine offers, and Kurt looks a little unsure, so Blaine pushes on. "We can save some for Darren, too," he adds, with reluctance in his voice, but it seems to be the thing to tip Kurt over the edge into accepting the offer.

*

J watches them interact with her chin in her hand, magic at the ready but hardly necessary. That's the thing about True Love, she thinks—the magic is so inherent and _so_ powerful that even her stupid mistake can't get in the way of it completely, not when it's being nurtured (although not exactly properly).

Blaine ends up being horrible in the kitchen, and rather than frustrated, Kurt seems to find it endearing, seems to enjoy teaching him what to do. They talk the whole time, food turning cold on their forks as they become distracted, and the clock ticks later and later.

"I probably should have mentioned that Darren tends to work until three or four in the morning," Blaine finally says around midnight, looking sheepish, and Kurt laughs in surprise.

"Yeah, probably." Kurt looks at the clock a little wistfully, and then sighs. "But I should probably be getting home."

"I'll walk you out," Blaine offers, and Kurt smiles in a pleased sort of way. "Thank you for dinner, by the way. You're an excellent cook. Do you give lessons?" Blaine jokes, and Kurt preens.

"I'll consider it. God knows you need them," he teases, and Blaine laughs.

"I'm not even going to deny that. Sorry if I got in your way"

"…no," Kurt says after a few beats, his look softening. "No, you didn't. I had a lot of fun tonight."

J can almost see it, see the story falling back onto the right tracks. The moment feels so heavy that she wants to scream, to shove them together, but she just stands there. Her magic is powerful, but there are some things she can't influence.

"Me too." Blaine seems over the moon, his smile a little too big and goofy to be strictly platonic, and then he pulls back a bit. "I'll, um, I'll let Darren know you stopped by."

The spell shatters, and Kurt suddenly looks ashamed of himself.

"R-right. Thanks." Kurt looks down at his feet before he gives Blaine one last, cautious smile. "Goodnight, Blaine."

"…goodnight, Kurt."

*

J spends every second of time that Kurt and Darren spend together against them, showing them how wrong they are for one another in ways that are way more exaggerated than they would be if she wasn't interfering.

Darren spills a drink on Kurt's sweater and tries to play it off, tries to make light of it as Kurt scrubs frantically at the stain with tears in his eyes.

Kurt falls asleep half way through the first Star Wars movie, and Darren uses it against him every time Kurt has ammunition of his own.

With every little argument, every little quirk that doesn't sit right, chinks are hammered further and further into the bond, and J hammers them deeper as she remedies each bought of damage with an _accidental_ , or eventually completely planned, run-in between Kurt and Blaine.

*

"I had to throw it out," Kurt wails, hands pressed into his eyes. "A _Vivienne Westwood_ sweater, Blaine. But it had a big splotch of red wine on it, and I just. I tried so hard to save it."

Blaine looks and feels just as distressed as Kurt sounds as he describes it, and he grabs Kurt's hands without thinking about it.

"I'm so sorry, Kurt, that sounds awful." Blaine sighs. "One time, Darren ran one of my bow ties through the washing machine." Kurt gasps. "I know, I _know_. Almost my entire collection is dry-clean or hand-wash only, and he doesn't even read the tags on things, Kurt!"

"How does he know what temperature to wash it at?!"

"I don't know!" Blaine exclaims, and then they both catch each other's eyes and start laughing.

"Well," Kurt says, wiping the mirth from his eyes. "That explains why most of his shirts are faded or don't fit right." He rolls his eyes. "You know, this might sound weird, but… I'm glad there's someone else in the world who cares about the proper way to take care of clothing."

Blaine grins.

"Well, I hope it's more than just you or me, or my faith in humanity is ruined," Blaine says solemnly, and Kurt starts laughing again. It makes Blaine's heart beat fast, makes his cheeks turn pink. "Can I get you another coffee?"

"That'd be great."

*

All of J's hard work starts to culminate with a fight, which is what she anticipated, planned, and hoped for.

"We were supposed to hang out tonight," Kurt insists, watching as Darren walks from room-to-room.

"No we weren't," Darren tosses back casually. "I don't remember us making plans."

"It's _Thursday_ night, Darren. We always hang out Thursday night because it's the one night of the week both of us are guaranteed not to be busy." Kurt follows after him, crossing his arms as he watches Darren throw clothes onto his bed. With a huff, he walks over to them and starts folding them, knowing full well Darren would just _shove them_ into his bag.

"So what? I'm just supposed to ditch my best friend, who is _never_ in town, to hang out with you, who I always see?" Darren gives Kurt a look, and Kurt glares back at it.

"We had _plans!_ " Kurt insists, and Darren throws his hands in the air.

"No, _you_ had plans, and I made other ones. But that's how it always goes, isn't it? You make the plans and I just follow along, right?"

"Says the guy who, on our second date, bought tickets to a movie I _didn't even want to see_."

"Are you _seriously_ bringing that up again?"

"What? You mean like the way you bring up how I fell asleep during Star Wars, like, _once a day?_ "

"You fell asleep during Star Wars! How the fuck do you fall asleep during Star Wars?!"

"It's easy to fall asleep when I don't care!"

"How can you even _say_ that?"

"God, it's like you don't even _know_ me!"

"You're one to talk. I feel like I'm dating a stranger!" Darren stalks past Kurt and out to the living room, grabbing his guitar and throwing it over his shoulder while he pulls on his shoes.

"Where are you _going?_ " Kurt demands, and the door opens, Blaine freezing with his key hanging in the lock.

"To spend some time with some people who give a _fuck_ about me!" Darren snarls, and then he sweeps past Blaine and is gone. Kurt stands there, hands balled into fists, before he grabs his bag and heads for the door. Blaine catches him.

"Woah, woah, hey, what happened?" Blaine asks, voice laced with worry, and there are tears in Kurt's eyes when he looks up.

"Your brother is an _asshole_ , that's what happened," Kurt spits, and then looks away.

"…well I could have told you that _weeks_ ago," Blaine says, and Kurt lets out a spluttering, surprised laugh. "Come on, I'll make you some warm milk and we can talk about it."

Kurt sniffs. "You remember that I like warm milk?"

Blaine laughs. "It's not every day I meet someone like you, Kurt." Blaine blinks rapidly and then tries to quickly correct himself. "I mean someone who likes warm milk."

"…you got it at the coffee shop the other day," Kurt points out, the corner of his mouth finally starting to curve into a smile.

"I never said you didn't convert me into a believer, now did I?"

They talk. First at the kitchen table, both with a glass of warm milk in their hands, and then on the couch, a bowl of moderately-buttered popcorn between them that they hardly touch.

"I'm pretty sure we're going to break up," Kurt finally admits in a low voice, leaning back against the couch and staring at the ceiling. "I can't even remember why we started dating, and that's… That's a bad sign, isn't it?" Kurt frowns. "But I feel like all we do lately is make each other miserable."

J feels a tinge of regret at that. Maybe they would have been okay for awhile, would have taken time to realize that they don't match up as well as they thought they did, would have gradually fizzled out on their own. It's her who made it happen so quickly, who made it so violent and emotional. But she reminds herself that she was just doing her job—is still just doing her job.

She can feel it coming, the part where Blaine tries to change Kurt's mind, where he plays the good brother and lets his own feelings sit by the wayside. So J leans in and gives Blaine the last gift she has for him in this story—courage.

"You know," Blaine says, and seems surprised that his own mouth is moving. "That first day I saw you, when I nearly spilt my drink all over you, I… I thought you were the most beautiful person I had ever seen." Blaine smiles, staring down at his hands. "And then you looked right past me and at Darren, and it just… I don't even know why, but it _killed_ me. This might make me an awful brother, but I didn't get what made him so great. What made him so much… Better than me."

Kurt stares at Blaine, eyes wide with shock, and then he reaches forward and gently touches Blaine's clasped hands.

"He's not better than you," Kurt whispers, and Blaine just smiles sadly.

"Then how is it that he's with you and I'm not?" The second Blaine says it, it looks like he's about to slap his hand over his mouth, like maybe that will force the words back in. But they're already gone, floating in the space between them, settling heavy in the air with the weight they carry.

"As far as I can see," Kurt starts, and he pulls Blaine's hands apart so that he can hold both of them with his own. "You're the one here with me right now."

And J doesn't do anything at that moment but watch. Maybe it's the way Blaine's face breaks open to the kind of joy that makes anyone vulnerable, or the way he softly whispers Kurt's name, or the swell of emotion that surges up through Kurt's body, from his toes up to his heart. But they kiss, and J leans forward and touches them both at the same exact time.

Finally, their story can truly start.

*

The loose ends are starting to get tied up, the universe finally righting itself, and J just has a few more tasks in front of her.

Blaine and Kurt might be on the path to True Love, their bond truly started, but that still leaves Darren and his match. J doesn't know much about him, but she also knows she doesn't need to. All she needs to do is put him in Darren's path, or vice-versa, and let the plan play out just the way the gods intend for it to.

Darren is at a bar, complaining to a friend and on his third beer, and J gives him one last impulsive thought—he needs to go to Kurt's house _immediately_. Despite his friends well-meaning attempts to stop him, his calls of, "But aren't you guys basically broken up now?", Darren goes, and J follows (or leads, depending on how you look at it).

Kurt isn't home, though. J knows this, but Darren doesn't. J knows that right now, Kurt is at _Darren's_ , falling in love with the right person. But that doesn't matter. Darren isn't really going to see Kurt, after all. He might _think_ he is, but magic is funny that way.

J has gone out of her way to keep this moment as pure as possible. This moment is planned. This moment is going to happen just like it's been written, just like she's been told. _No more mistakes_. She's had to get creative to do it, but she's managed.

Darren knocks on the door frantically, again and again and again. It's late, but he doesn't seem to care, hammering and hammering and hammering on the door like his life depends on it. J wonders if he doesn't understand it. She knows that he knows that the end of Kurt and him is for the best, so isn't he curious why he's fighting so hard for something that he's already let go of?

J also knows, of course, that Darren is fighting for what he's about to find. He doesn't even _know_ it yet, and it just makes her all the more giddy.

"Hold on, hold on," a voice yells through the door, and then it opens.

"I'm sorry," is what spills out of Darren's mouth, and then he moves forward and kisses the twin he _thinks_ is Kurt but most certainly isn't. J grins and touches them both simultaneously, her own inner harmony restored as the knots she created in fate's loom loosen and untie.

The kiss only lasts for a few seconds before Kurt's twin is pulling back and pushing Darren away, eyes wide and alarmed.

"…do you normally kiss people you don't know that passionately?" He asks, breathless, and Darren seems to actually look at him for the first time. The plaid pajama pants (that Kurt would never wear) and the TMNT shirt (…does Kurt even know who the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles _are?_ ), hair disheveled in a way that Darren has never seen it. Oh, and he's wearing glasses. Darren is pretty sure Kurt doesn't wear glasses.

"You're the brother," Darren whispers in awe.

"I'm Chris," is what he replies, eyebrow raised. "You have about fifteen seconds to tell me who you are before I slam the door, considering you just assaulted me."

And Darren laughs, leaving Chris confused but still kind of smiling.

It might not be a beautiful beginning, but it's a beginning.

*

It's not a picture perfect happy ending. The damage of Kurt-and-Darren cannot simply be overwritten, and while two love stories might start that day, their progress is slow as they navigate the wake of destruction. After all, dating your ex's brother isn't exactly _easy_.

J is still around, frowning through every fight, and encouraging everything she can to mend the relationships, to help them bloom, to help everyone recover. It's enough work that she debates retiring, but there isn't much for a disciple to do if they're not working, and if anything, her mistake is a lesson that teaches her just how important what she does is.

It might take months of fighting, of tears, of consoling, but eventually they all move past it and move on in their stories. That's when J can finally bow out, to let fate continue it's smooth sailing course, and she does so with a sigh of relief and a happy smile.

"Do you ever think about how weird it is?" Blaine asks Kurt one evening, as he helps him into a coat. Their on their way to the movies while their brothers are set up on the couch with a Star Wars marathon. Kurt raises his eyebrows at Blaine.

"What?"

"That you and Darren dated, but then how Chris ended up being _perfect_ for him and…" Blaine trails off, smiling in a shy kind of way.

"And you're perfect for me?" Kurt murmurs, leaning forward and catching Blaine's mouth in a soft kiss. He hums into it. "I guess it is kind of weird. Ugh, and you know how I feel about you bringing that up." Kurt scrunches his nose. "I thought we were going to pretend like that _didn't_ happen."

"I heard that!" Darren calls from the other room.

"Shut up, you're pretending, too," Chris murmurs, and Kurt and Blaine laugh quietly, heads bent together.

"Love works in mysterious ways, huh?" Blaine asks, and Kurt glances into the living room, where Chris and Darren are sharing a bowl of popcorn covered in a horrendous amount of butter, and then Darren licks the greasy residue from Chris's hand.

"You are so disgusting," Chris states, but there's a fondness in his voice that makes Kurt smile.

"It really does. Come on, or we'll miss the previews." Strangely enough, Kurt doesn't really care when Blaine leans close and murmurs in his ear during them. Funny how things work out that way.


End file.
